I woke, groaning. There was a severe ache in my side that had not been there before. I tried to raise my hand to wipe away the sleep from my eyes, but it wouldn't move.
I froze, eyes widening, the memories coming back in flashes.
Tedros and Agatha sneaking into the school. Trapping Tedros in the school tower. Being carried through the school gates. . .villains chasing us. . .being dropped into a cloak.
Being taken away from Rafal.
I grunted, writhing against my restraints. I was lying on a bed, my hands tied above my head, much like the position I had Tedros in before. I was also in some sort of cave, with a dim torch on the wall being the only source of light.
I struggled more, letting out an angry scream, but the rope only bit into my skin.
The door to the room swung open. Light spilled in, eating up the darkness. I blinked rapidly until my eyes adjusted.
Standing in the doorway as Agatha.
"You," I snarled.
"It's good to see you too," she replied, shutting the door behind me.
"Where the hell am I?" I barked.
"League Headquarters," she replied.
"League? League of what exactly?"
"The League of Heroes."
I blinked at her. "You're kidding me."
She shook her head.
"What the actual fuck is wrong with you!" I screamed. She flinched. I didn't care. "Who the hell gives you the right to waltz into my school and take me away from my love—"
"Your love?" Agatha asked incredulously. "That love of yours nearly killed us. He's Evil."
"No shit."
Agatha glared at me, hard. I glowered right back.
"He's no better than you," I grit out. "You. . .you murderer."
Agatha clenched her jaw.
Then she left without a word.
***
By the time the weak warmth of sunrise left League Headquarters, the League was gone too.
I had caused quite a scene when being escorted from my room. I shrieked and writhed as I was dragged, bound and gagged, out the door. I hadn't even stopped to gape at the famous heroes from the fairytales I had grown up reading.
I tried to use my magic as well, but Merlin had done something, some sort of spell, to make it so I couldn't.
Damned wizard.
Apparently the villains knew where the Headquarters were, hence the sudden movement. Everyone was to spread out among the forest to draw Rafael's forces in different directions, while me, Tedros, Agatha, and Hort were to travel to a safe house.
Oh joy.
I still couldn't believe what had happened. Agatha and Tedros had taken me from Rafal. I was finally happy there. With him.
And they had to come along and ruin that.
I stood with Merlin and Agatha, hands bound, under a fungus-infected oak a few paces from the entrance hole, watching old heroes go their separate ways into the Woods, satchels of clothes, food, and drink weighing down their backs. Tinkerbell and Cinderella journeyed to the west, Pinocchio and Red Riding Hood to the east, Jack and Briar Rose to the north, and Uma, Yuba, and the White Rabbit to the south, with Hansel and Gretel wheeling their rickety chairs behind them.
Tedros sidled up to Agatha. "Just when I was starting to feel fond of the old farts," he said, shivering in his unlaced shirt. "You think we'll ever see them again, Merlin?"
"I hope so, dear boy. Because it will mean we're still alive," said the wizard, pulling two black cloaks from his hat and handing him one. "In the meantime, there are bigger questions to be answered." Merlin glanced at me. "Like when Y/n will destroy the ring."
I glared at him icily.
"M, you said the safe house is beyond the Frostplains?" Tedros asked. "That's a two-day journey northeast."
"And the trail's quite narrow through the Never Lands," Merlin added. "Given there are four of you now, we certainly can't travel in a pack with the Dark Army on the hunt . . ." He looked at Agatha keenly. "Which means we'll have to travel two by two, with each pair a good ways behind to avoid drawing attention."
"Fair enough," Tedros surmised, clutching Agatha by the wrist. "You lead the way, M."
Merlin turned to me. "Are you comfortable walking with. . .em. . .that?" he asked, nodding his head to Hort, who was sitting a ways away.
I raised my eyebrows, looking down at my gag.
"Oh, right."
In a moment, my mouth was free. I worked my jaw before forming a response.
I spat on the floor in front of him. "I'm not going anywhere with you."
Merlin sighed. "Fine, then. You know, if you cooperated, this could have been much easier."
He waved his hand, and I was out like a light.
***
I woke to the steady rhythm that signified being carried. Strong, safe arms held me, and my head was leaning against someone's chest.
I glanced up through my lashes, half-asleep. "Rafal?" I whispered.
I blinked rapidly, clearing the sleep from my eyes. Then I gasped when I saw who was really carrying me. "Put me down!"
"Not a chance," Tedros replied, clutching me tighter. "Besides, we're here."
I craned to see Agatha with Hort and Merlin standing on a lush green moor, the grass so green and dewy it sparkled under the melting sun. We were surrounded by more green heaths, with sheep, cows, and horses grazing freely, as if it were a haven from the dying Woods.
"Look," Agatha said.
The others and I followed her eyes to a small farmhouse across the moors.
"Must be our safe house," said Hort.
Tedros squinted. "Someone's coming."
Two people were walking towards us now, tan-skinned and weather-beaten, both holding hands. A bony woman with straggly brown hair and a broad-chested man with rough black curls.
Tedros wasn't smiling at all. Watching the strangers approach, his face flushed dead white, sweat streaking his temples. He put me down swiftly, and I stumbled away from him before he could change his mind and scoop me up again. But his eyes locked on the two figures ahead.
"No no no no no—" he gasped.
I spun to the strangers, confused, but the woman had stopped cold, her mouse-like face a mask of shock.
"God help me," she whispered.
Tedros stumbled back, grabbing Agatha's arm like a panicked child. "Wake me up . . . please . . . wake me up—"
"T-T-Tedros?" the woman stammered.
Merlin faced the woman. "I'm afraid your son and his friends need you, Guinevere."
***
When we had been escorted into the house, I didn't fight this time. I knew it would be pointless to try. After all, I had no idea where I was and had no way to get back to Rafal with Merlin's magic still restraining my power.
Still, though I was sitting at the table among the others in a home that was supposedly "safe," every muscle in my body was tensed up, like a wound coil. My hands were stiff bound.
Lancelot lay plates and silverware for each of us. "You must be famished, the lot of you," he said in a rumbling baritone. "Your dark-haired friend asked if he could have a bath. Funny lad . . . said he didn't want to stink up the table. What's his name again? Homer? Hodor?"
None of the others answered.
"Hobbin, I think," said Lancelot.
"It's Hort," I muttered.
Guinevere bustled in from the kitchen with a dish of fire-grilled turkey and a bowl of rampion salad. In the torchlight of the farmhouse's dining room, I saw she had Tedros' small, snub nose, his flat brows over electric-blue eyes, as well as his tendency to sweat profusely. Her hair was another matter: it was so tangled and twiggish brown that her small, pallid face was like an egg in a bird's nest.
"It's Tuesday and Lance and I cook for the week on Mondays, so we have plenty to go around," she said. "Until next Monday, that is. Doesn't mean you can't stay past Monday, of course. We're just not used to guests . . . or people for that matter. Sometimes Lance and I go days without talking at all." She sat down and waited in vain for someone to fill the silence. "Hope it's edible. Tedros always loved my turkey, even as a little boy. He'd come running the second he smelled it from the kitchen, even in the middle of his lessons with Merlin."
Tedros didn't look at her.
"Shall we start?" Guinevere said weakly, inching the dishes forward. "You've been on a long journey, so load up your plates. I can always make more."
No one ate.
No one spoke.
I sat there, glowering at Agatha and Tedros.
"Well, seems like you're all settled in, so I'll be on my way!" chimed Merlin, ambling in with his walking stick in hand.
Everyone else looked up urgently, as if he were the last lifeboat leaving a ship.
"W-w-where are you going?" said Tedros.
"Just as you are safe here, I must ensure our other friends are safe too, including your fellow students at school," said Merlin. "No doubt the School Master has accelerated his plan, once the Storian revealed to him that you are under the Lady of the Lake's protection."
I grit my teeth.
Merlin looked at Guinevere cryptically. "Apologies for not staying for dinner, my dear. Though I did go to the grove to pay my respects . . ."
Guinevere nodded, as if she understood what he meant.
"I'll see you soon, children," said Merlin, before he glanced at me, his eyes finding the ring on my finger. "Hopefully with no more blood on our hands."
I gave him a look that could freeze hell over. "Let me out of these cuffs and I'll show you how much blood I can spill."
Merlin only laughed, which made my blood boil even more. He waved his hand and my restraints untied, falling to the floor.
I looked at him.
"Can't eat with bound hands." He magically whisked a lump of turkey from the table to his hand and sauntered out of the cabin, the door swinging shut behind him.
Unbearable silence resumed.
I sighed, gaze sliding to the house's logwood walls, the oval-shaped rooms with crackling fireplaces, the handmade leather couches and sheep-wool rugs, everything so cozy and lovingly crafted, as if two people, without friends, family, community, had made a home at the end of the world.
"White or dark meat, Tedros?" Guinevere's voice asked. Guinevere picked up her son's plate and smiled at him.
Her question hung in the air, the first challenge to the silence.
Tedros finally looked at his mother. "I can't do this," he breathed. Guinevere said nothing as Tedros wrenched from the table, his cast-iron chair screeching against the floor.
Lancelot frowned. "Tedros, you don't have to talk to her, but at least eat your—"
"If you even look in my direction, you dirty fink, I'll split you in half," Tedros hissed.
Lancelot rocketed to his feet, but Guinevere clasped his wrist, guiding him back down. Lancelot said nothing as Tedros' boots snapped out of the room and the farmhouse door slammed behind him.
Instinctively Agatha jumped up to follow her prince.
The room was so quiet I could hear the sound of Hort's bath running across the house.
"Well, then," Lancelot said, forcing a smile, "shall we dig in?"
Silent, I started on the turkey.
"He's picked a lovely princess, hasn't he?" Guinevere said. "'Agatha,' was it? Went after him so surely, like Tedros' father used to come after me. She must love him very much." Her voice wavered. "Not sure Arthur or I could have chosen any better for him."
"She doesn't look like a queen," grumbled Lancelot, mouth full.
"She carries herself like a queen. More than I ever did to be honest," said Guinevere, sniffling a laugh.
"I suppose. She's perfect for the lad. People of the kingdom will fawn over her and she'll dote on him hand and foot," said Lancelot.
"Camelot will finally have a real queen," Guinevere sighed, putting on a smile. She turned to me. "What about you, dear? Did you and Hort meet at school? Or was it the Snow Ball—"
"I'm not with Hort," I said sharply, then softened. "My love is far away from here."
"Oh. . .and why aren't you together?"
"Because," I snapped. "I was taken from him against my will."
I stood from the table and walked out the door without a word.